Woodbury eye-poking trend goes viral as Minnesota prepares to travel to Iowa

After it happened a third time, the Internet nearly broke.

And now, with Minnesota traveling to Iowa City tomorrow to take on the Hawkeyes on Thursday, the buzz about Iowa's Adam Woodbury "eye-poking" trend isn't going away yet, even if coach Fran McCaffery desperately wants it to.

"I'm 100 percent behind him, I know the kid and quite frankly I think there's too much talk about it," he said on yesterday's Big Ten coaches teleconference.

But talk there is.

Sunday, the Hawkeyes center, while defending point guard Melo Trimble, poked the eyes of a Maryland freshman in what would have been a small moment in a 71-55 blowout at Carver-Hawkeye arena.

Except that is not the first time this has come up.

In a recent game vs. Wisconsin, Woodbury poked the eyes of both Frank Kaminsky and Nigel Hayes while defending the Badgers -- incidents that had ESPN broadcaster Dan Dakich characterizing Woodbury as a "coward" and calling for his suspension.

When asked in the Maryland postgame news conference how such an odd thing keeps happening if it's indeed not intentional, McCaffery responded with "Next question. Ask an intelligent question."

When another reporter asked why the previous question was unintelligent, McCaffery responded with "Because I said so," before abruptly ending the press conference.

It's hard to believe a player could poke three other players in the eyes accidentally in such a span, but it's perhaps as difficult to believe it's intentional, McCaffery said, a notion that Maryland coach Mark Turgeon gracefully echoed.

"I think you have to be pretty talented to be moving full speed and poke a guy in the eye and try to do it," he said on Monday. "That's just my opinion. The league has got to look at it obviously. The kid apologized and Melo is fine, so we move on."

On Monday, McCaffery reiterated that it's not something Woodbury has been taught and made the incidents out to be a product of the center's strong defensive skills. Woodbury was issued a flagrant foul for the most recent poking incident. He wasn't penalized for either poke vs. Wisconsin.

"I know the kid. I know what we teach and I know him, I know his character, I know his background. He does not want this attention. He doesn't deserve it. It's not anything malicious, anything intentional.

"I mean, think about it -- here we are, we've got the game firmly in hand. Do you think he wants to stop, give them two free throws and the ball and get a flagrant foul, be in foul trouble? He's playing the best basketball of his life, he had 16 points. Do you think he wants to be out of the game with foul trouble? He's too smart for that."

Woodbury apologized to Trimble after the Maryland game, just as he had with the Wisconsin players and again called the poking strictly an accident, which perhaps raises as much concerns about his method of playing defense as it does about an incident that has heaped unwanted attention on Iowa City.